No doubt about it: Geraldine Kelley was one tough woman, owners of the Victoria Motel in Ventura said Friday. Small and dark-haired, "Geri" sported tattoos, kept attack dogs as pets and sometimes draped a 6-foot boa constrictor around her neck during the seven years she managed their 36-room motel next to Highway 101, Valerie and Don Kiunke recalled.

The first time I met Gabriel García Márquez, then an unknown writer in Mexico, was on July 6, 1962, in the office of the producer of Luis Buñuel's movie "Viridiana. " I remember the date well because after noticing the headline, Gabo asked to borrow the evening paper I had just bought, exclaiming "Dammit, today my master died," referring to William Faulkner. Faulkner famously detested intrusions in his private life, and the funeral in his native Oxford, Miss., was sparsely attended by several dozen family members, his publishers and a few writers.

THE official end of the notorious Cali cocaine cartel came late last year here with little more commotion than the rap of a judge's gavel. The Colombian drug lords Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela, 63, and Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, 67, entered guilty pleas and were ushered off to federal prison for the next 30 years -- no Miami Vice-like dramatics, no bodies riddled with gunfire in the manner of Medellin rival Pablo Escobar.

Attorney Barbara Mulvaney prosecuted killers in Rwanda and promoted democracy for the U.S. State Department in Iraq before returning to Los Angeles and running for Congress. She could hardly believe it when a local Democratic club barred her - and several other candidates of that party - from the dais at a recent campaign forum. "I'm a very qualified candidate," Mulvaney said in an interview, taking issue with the club's decision to include only those who had raised at least $200,000 for their campaigns.

Police are investigating a shallow grave discovered off a freeway embankment in Downey as a homicide, authorities said Monday. The grave was found about 4:45 p.m. Sunday off the 105 Freeway near Bellflower Boulevard, authorities said. A California Highway Patrol deputy found the grave and notified local police. Downey Police Department homicide detectives have taken over the investigation, authorities said. The identity and description of the remains were not immediately available.

Authorities continued to search late Monday for two Costa Mesa hikers who called for help from a cellphone before their battery died. About 8:25 p.m. Sunday, Nicholas Cendoya, 19, and Kyndall Jack, 18, notified authorities that they were lost while hiking in Trabuco Canyon, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Department. The two thought they were about a mile from their vehicle, authorities said. Deputies searched for the man and woman on foot but were unable to find them.

More than 100 firefighters are battling a fierce fire at a large commercial market building in Eagle Rock late Sunday night, authorities said. The fire in the 3300 block of North Verdugo Boulevard was reported at 8:58 p.m., and by the time the first companies arrived, flames were shooting through the building's roof, according to L.A. Fire Department spokeswoman Katherine Main. The intensity of the fire within the structure caused crews to fall back and attack the blaze with hoses, Main said.

Two teenagers thought to have run away from their homes in Thousand Oaks and described as possibly suicidal have been found "in good health," authorities said Friday. Kaylee Rebert, 14, and Nicholas Marino, 13, were found in Newbury Park about 3 p.m. Friday after someone reported seeing the pair, the Ventura County Sheriff's Department said. Deputies found them a short time later. The teens were not in any danger when they were found, the department said, adding that at this time there was "no crime associated with this incident.

Authorities began sifting through dirt in a New York City basement Saturday as part of a ongoing search for the remains of Etan Patz, the 6-year-old boy who vanished in 1979. The basement's concrete floor was removed Saturday morning and the area was broken into quadrants, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said in a telephone interview with the Times. Authorities dug 1 1/2 feet to 2 feet into the dirt floor, Browne said. The first quadrant had been sifted through and the second was underway at 5 p.m. Eastern time.

April 11, 2013 | By Richard Winton, This post has been corrected. See note below for details

A crew of burglars allegedly walked away with at least $6 million by cutting through the rooftops of San Gabriel Valley banks under the cover of darkness, according to law enforcement authorities. On Wednesday, authorities announced five Inland Empire men had been arrested on suspicion of carrying out the unusual bank heists. The arrests came after investigators searched for clues for more than a year and gathered DNA evidence from crime scenes. "It is one of the most elaborate crimes we have seen," Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said at a news conference.

At a time when the Middle East peace process appears stymied, Israel received an unexpected olive branch when Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas denounced the Holocaust and expressed sympathy with its victims. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu labeled the comments a play for public opinion and called on the Palestinian leader to "tear up" his recent pact with the militant Islamist movement Hamas. "What happened to the Jews in the Holocaust is the most heinous crime known by mankind in modern times," said Abbas, according to a statement published Sunday by the Palestinian government news agency WAFA.

Yes, he even falls with grace. Mikhail Baryshnikov doesn't get much opportunity to dance in "Man in a Case," a performance piece that has been adapted from the Anton Chekhov short stories "The Man in a Case" and "About Love. " The most he offers is a few moves wreathed in air quotes. But there's a point in the production, which opened Thursday at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica, when he slides down a steep flight of steps that is more revealing of his character than anything thus far in his portrayal.

The deaths of 15 people, including 12 volunteer firefighters, in an explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant a year ago were preventable, federal investigators said Tuesday. Preliminary findings from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board on the chemical disaster in West, Texas, include: The firefighters should have been trained to deal with the stockpile of ammonium nitrate at West Fertilizer Co. State regulators should not have allowed the fertilizer to be stored in wooden containers. Local authorities should have considered keeping schools and homes farther away from the plant.

Kevin Sharp Country singer scored a handful of hits after overcoming cancer Kevin Sharp , 43, a Northern California-reared country singer whose gentle tenor voice helped him score a handful of country hits in the late 1990s after winning a battle with cancer as a teenager, died Saturday at his mother's home in Fair Oaks, a Sacramento suburb. It wasn't the cancer that took his life but complications from a digestive system illness he developed in recent years and for which he underwent surgery about five years ago, his sister, Mary Huston, said.

Feedback is everywhere. Not just in the form of professional performance reviews and unwanted comments from your parents, children and partners. Social media and review sites have unleashed the critic in us all. Eating a meal out? Post what you think of the food and waiters on a review site while still at the table. If you are reading this review online, you can leave a comment below saying just how wrong I am. We may not be able to exert complete control over what someone else thinks of us, but we can certainly do something about what we choose to do with the feedback.

A controversy-riddled water district involved in a federal corruption investigation is in danger of losing its insurance, a political black eye that could have implications for the agency and its 2 million customers. The Assn. of California Water Agencies Joint Powers Insurance Authority has recommended to its board that it drop the employment liability insurance for Central Basin Municipal Water District, citing the circus-like atmosphere at the agency. The authority insures hundreds of water districts across the state, and this would be only the second time in its 35-year history that it canceled coverage for a water district.

A man who allegedly brandished a handgun and shot at a deputy was killed in Lynwood when a deputy fired back, authorities said Tuesday night. The suspect was walking in the 4000 block of Agnes Street when he came into contact with at least one deputy shortly after 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said. The man opened fire, according to the department, prompting a deputy to return fire. The man was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

About 700 people were evacuated at several facilities at Texas A&M University on Wednesday after a bomb threat forced the closing of part of the school and its athletic complex. “The investigation is continuing,” spokesman Lane Stephenson told the Los Angeles Times by telephone. The university in College Station, Texas, issued a Code Maroon emergency warning after receiving the threat about 10:50 a.m. Federal officials have been notified and are aiding in the investigation, the school said.

Maria Rodale is the third generation to lead Rodale Inc., the independent publisher of health and environmental books and magazines in Pennsylvania. Her grandfather started Organic Gardening Magazine, and she is a longtime organic advocate but says she drinks coffee and wouldn't describe herself as a "purist. " She has three daughters, ages 7, 16 and 32, and these days is focused on the e-commerce site Rodales.com. You've written a whole book on organics ("Organic Manifesto"), so this may not be easy.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Since the bullets began to fly on freeways here, Taylor Stevens has stuck to the back roads. Rikki Rohret keeps her eyes on the overpasses. Behind the wheel, Joe Miller tries not to think about being an anonymous gunman's next victim. Somebody has been firing at vehicles, a serial triggerman who police warned seemed to be randomly targeting motorists, declaring his own misguided war against his fellow drivers. Since the shootings began in March, police have linked at least a dozen incidents along the network of freeways that connect this Midwestern city, which sees itself as a genteel cousin of Rome for its fountains, or Paris for its boulevards, not as some hulking U.S. city where an armed man could run amok.